‘Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood’ with Charles Manson?

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Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood is a film about two buddies struggling to stay on the slippery second tier of the 1960s movie-TV industry. Once Upon a Time is also about the Manson family and their infamous murder scheme. The two threads are firmly woven together in a story that manages to gently spoof the machinery of bygone Hollywood even as it sets up suspense for one of the last century’s most publicized crimes.

The two buddies central to Once Upon a Time are Rick Dalton (Leonardo DiCaprio), a TV western actor whose star is fading, and his stunt double Cliff Booth (Brad Pitt). Their twangy speech and laconic manliness are psychologically close to the western heroes Rick portrays—and maybe to the anti-heroes he will play in Italy if producer Marvin Schwarzs (Al Pacino) lands a deal to cast him in spaghetti westerns. The power relationship is obvious: Rick flies business class while Cliff sits in coach. When Cliff isn’t leaping from rooftops on Rick’s behalf, he’s house sitting for him or running errands. But Rick is a good master and tries to keep his underling employed against the judgment of some in the industry who think Cliff is a loose cannon ready to fire.

Once Upon a Time’s writer-director, Quentin Tarantino, has always made movies that reflect primarily on other movies. It must have been a treat for him, setting a film in Hollywood as the last vestiges of the old studios were packed away like unwanted stage scenery. Frame after frame is infused with Tarantino’s encyclopedic knowledge of the industry. The black-and-white clips from Rick’s earlier westerns and the production scenes from his current film replicate their real-life models so well you’d swear you’ve seen them on cable (or YouTube?). Details count. Tarantino reproduces the old NBC bell chime for a TV episode. Everyone flies Pan Am.

The Manson girls are part of the L.A. milieu, seen scavenging in dumpsters and thumbing rides along the streets. Rick and Cliff snicker at “the hippies.” However, Cliff is sufficiently enticed by the fetching appearance of one girl, Pussycat (Margaret Qualley), that he gives her a lift back to the Manson hideout. Already claimed by rust, weather and squalor, Spahn Ranch had been the site for one of Rick’s cancelled TV shows. Cliff knows the place well and guesses something is amiss when he visits the elderly owner, George Spahn (Bruce Dern), enfeebled and at Manson’s mercy.

Once Upon a Time has many funny scenes including Cliff’s encounter with Bruce Lee (Mike Moh) on the set of “The Green Hornet.” Dressed as Kato, Lee makes cocky pronouncements about his martial arts prowess (inferring that he could best Cassius Clay in a fight). Annoyed, Cliff challenges Lee to “a friendly contest” and dusts the side of a car with the rising Asian star. It’s the first sign Tarantino will take artistic license with history: “The Green Hornet” was cancelled two years before this film’s 1969 setting.

It’s not all joshing around. Once Upon a Time builds tension subtly, especially at the Spahn Ranch. The Manson girls are ominous for being so unemphatic yet utterly convinced by their mission. One of them comments that most of the TV shows they grew up with involved murder. “We are killing the people who taught us to kill,” she insists, echoing many of Manson’s own comments on the society that produced him. Charlie is seen early on as a hippie, his countenance as mild and unthreatening as a slightly overcast summer day, skulking around outside the house rented by Roman Polanski, Sharon Tate and their friend, Jay Sebring.

Observant viewers will make mental bookmarks at many points. The unseen driver and passenger of a vintage British sports car racing up the winding Hollywood hills—is that Polanski and Tate with the wind in their hair? Many of the era’s stars, including Steve McQueen and Mama Cass, are represented at a pool party in the Hollywood Playboy Club.

At two and a half hours, Once Upon a Time is a longish film whose story wouldn’t have suffered from losing a minute here or a half minute there. In some of its best, wordless moments, Once Upon a Time becomes a visual and sonic blur heightening impressions of its time and place. Tarantino makes good use of period songs such as “Mrs. Robinson,” “MacArthur Park” and even the original recording of “Ramblin’ Gamblin’ Man” by the Bob Seger System.

Spoiler alert: weird ending as the Manson murderers take an unanticipated turn. It’s the Hollywood climax Tarantino would have produced if he were the screenwriter of reality instead of a mere filmmaker.